Conflicted on the Horn-ics

A small aside from the craziness that reigns this time of year in the self-publishing/personal book industry.  I've avoided railing here on the absurd decision and lack of loyalty that was the move of the Seattle Supersonics to somewhere in the Southwest under a name that I won't mention.  It was the final nail in the coffin in my mind for a league that has really lost it's way under David Stern.

I moved to Seattle in January, 1979.  That year the Sonics won their first and only world championship in five games over the Washington Bullets (now the Wizards).  I was hooked.  Lenny Wilkins was our coach and he was a Hall of Fame player while with the St Louis Hawks of my childhood.  Gus Williams was our star and he didn't look any taller than me among the giants that he had to play against every night.  Paul Silas was the enforcer along with young Lonnie Shelton.  It was a wonderful team.  I bought into season tickets for many years until the cost just got too high to continue, which was the beginning of the end for the Sonics as we knew them.

So the word on the street is that New Orleans, who lost their first NBA team to Salt Lake City (Utah Jazz? Really?  Got to be the strangest name connection since the Lakers left Minneapolis), are not supporting the team and it likely will move.  This is the team that the City that won't be named should have waited for, as they helped to bridge the time after Katrina by giving the Hornets a place to play.  But, no, carpetbaggers with lots of dollars and nothing else to do had to come steal our team, with Stern as a willing accomplice.

Word is that Steve Ballmer remains interested in an NBA team in Seattle, as he was to try to keep the Sonics from leaving only to see the complete lack of support from Seattle's Mayor, who lost reelection to an unknown in large part due to his stupidity in the matter, and our wise State Legislature, who also managed to run the corporate offices of Boeing out of state.  Members of the Seattle City Council even publicly stated that the NBA had no value to the community.  Zero.

In an urban area the NBA is more than just another sport.  It was a major part of our identity.  It's not an accident that Seattle has become a hotbed for basketball.  Ask any of our young stars and they will call out guys like Gary Payton, or Shawn Kemp as a prime motivating factor.

I feel bad for the fans in New Orleans.  I can't imagine doing to them what the losers in Oil-ville did to us.  But New Orleans is not an NBA town for what ever reason and the Hornets are going to move.  And as much as I thought I would never say it, I hope they come here.

Make no doubt about it, those impostors that play in the state between Texas and Kansas are not the Sonics the way the Hornets in New Orleans were the Hornets in Charlotte.  They have no legacy.  That legacy lives, legally and rightfully, here in Seattle.  That team is simply a very good expansion team with no real history.  If the Hornets move to Seattle they will be the reincarnation of the Sonics.  We still have our championship trophy.  The names like Sikma, Payton, McDaniel. MacMillan, Brown and Chambers will be part of the rebirth.  The people who stole our team could have done things the right way and had an untarnished legacy of having saved the Hornets.  In the end, they killed the Hornets.  I feel bad for the players that have worn that uniform in the past.

So I'm gradually getting used to the idea that Seattle may once again have an NBA team.  For some reason the Horn-ics seem like a good fit and may be the salve that heals the open wounds brought to bear by Stern and friends.  We'll see how it all works out.

For those interested, Sonicsgate is a great, award winning indie film about the whole move debacle and Steve Kelly has a nice piece on the recent events.

That ultimate marketing moment

I've been really blessed to be involved with a company from it's earliest stages where we had to sell the whole "vision thing" to the present, where we have become a global self-publishing leader.  In our early days we talked a lot about democratizing publishing.  It is the thing that separated us from the others in the nacent POD book marketplace in 2006 and it is still our passion today.

Self publishing can mean a lot of things.  It can be the opportunity to share your interests to an affinity group.  It can mean taking control of your brand as you market yourself in print.  It can be an opportunity to support a cause and raise money. It can be the entryway to the best-seller list.

But this time of year it is very much about that ultimate marketing moment that built Blurb to what we are today.  It is the moment that your mother opens the package and sees her life laid out in a beautifully bound book.  Or when your spouse sees your first year in pictures, captured for perpetuity. Or the memories you share with your friends of the trip you took to Vegas that somehow didn't manage to stay there.

We can spend a lot of money on marketing, buying Google keywords, or going to conferences.  But nothing we do in the year compares with what happens when bits turn to atoms on the pages of a real book that will live on the coffee table for a while before snuggling into a nice spot on the bookshelf.  And when someone sees what is possible, their creative mind begins to slowly consider what can be--what can come from within them.  That is the ultimate Blurb marketing moment.

We hear from a lot of old and new fans this time of year.  It never gets old.  It is our passion.  And we've got some very cool things up our sleeves for 2011 to continue to enable everyday folks as well as creative professionals to find that inspiration and tell that story.

Traveling light update

I'm back in the States after a week in the EU.  Verdict on my "travelling light" experiment?  Big thumbs up.  I'm off to NYC for the Blurb Photography Book Now Awards event and I'll be sticking to the iPad and iPhone for the foreseeable future.

My first days of traveling light

Those of you who follow me on ye olde Twitter know that I'm in an experiment of sorts during my current business trip to The Netherlands, Germany, and France. Today is the first day of Photokina, the biggest photo-products trade show in the world, but that's for another post. This post if about how a frequent traveller like me is managing in an all-mobile-device scenario.

My trusty MacBookPro is idling happily in my Seattle office. In my bag of tricks are: iPhone 4 with iOS 4.1, iPad (desperately waiting for sw upgrade to get to par with iPhone) with LogMeIn sw, small charging devices (no heavy converter, something I didn't think about when shedding pounds), Apple bluetooth keyboard (a very happy discovery, easily packable and creates a whole new level of experience with pared wtih my non-apple case/easel), and Kensington power pack.

The first thing I noticed when packing is that I have a whole bunch of room in my backpack. A good thing because I'll be in four cities in five days so I'm a carry-on-bag road warrior. My unofficial professor of historical fiction novels has given me an assignment of a 600-page book, which fits nicely next to my Bose noise-reduction headphones in the space a power converter usually lives. On the plane from Seattle to Amsterdam, I really realized just how much better my iPad screen is over anything an airline can offer. So I got caught up on Meet The Press before my obligatory Ambien nap.

Once in Europe I was happy to find that more and more town centers now have free wifi. So I found a great outdoor cafe in Eindhoven, ordered up some food and coffee (these Dutch folks put Seattlites to shame with how much caffeine they consume) and was able to get caught up on my Instapaper reading along with making progress on my book. Another shout out to Europeans who know now to spend a Sunday. I had a prime spot in the Square and I was never rushed to move along. Along with train travel, Europeans are so much more civilized than Americans in this manner.

Later my first evening the first mini-crisis occurred. I had made a video (with my iPhone 4 of course, extraordinary) of a piece of printing equipment that I wanted to share with my collegues on Monday morning. For some reason it did not sync with my iPad so I was sunk. But not so! A quick fire up of LogMeIn and within seconds I'm controlling my desktop in Seattle. A simple drop into Dropbox and I had my movie. My first feeling that "hey, this could work!"

Train from Eindhoven to Cologne. Many trains in Europe have WiFi but not the case with ICE. So I'm back to managing my meager 50MB data allotment on my iPhone for the 3-hour trip. I had dumped all of my email onto my iPad so non-critical emails easily managed with my trusty B/T keyboard. By the way, the Europeans really like my iPad but they LOVE my keyboard.

Check into hotel and next probem occurs, the first failure on my part. The wireless coverage in my room is non-existent. They of course have ethernet but, alas, I have only an iPhone and iPad. Note to self--get a mini hot spot to add to my bag. Has to be light though or it doesn't pass the test. It will fit right in the space along with a reasonably-sized book (got that, LZ?). Fortunately the hotel has screaming fast wireless in the lobby, which is where I am now happily typing away and readying for the opening of Photokina. Time for the real work to begin! More on my traveling light series at a later date.

Late summer update

Summer on the West Coast is winding down and that means that trade show/conference season can't be too far behind.  There has been a lot of churn about eBooks of late and I'm sure that will be a major point of discussion as we move into the fall.  At Blurb we've been busy with a new web-based creation tool that is in beta as well as a few new wrinkles that are upcoming.  Planning for capacity in the fourth quarter is always paramount to the Print Operations team and we're in great shape as we move into autumn.  Customers in France, Canada, Australia and New Zealand have personalized services, pricing and shipping options.  All that and we're trying to get a bit of R&R in before the deluge hits.

Personally I'll be on the road in September and October at the Photography Book Now events in NYC and Seattle, Photokina in Cologne, PhotoPlus Expo in NYC and at the Interquest Forum 2010 de l’impression numérique de livres in Paris.  I love to get out and meet with suppliers and customers and it really gets me fired up for the end of the year.

Here's hoping your year has gone well and that I'll  see many of you during my travels.

Review of iPhone 4 and iOS4

The friendly FedEx driver dropped of a highly anticipated package yesterday just before the 3PM deadline.  It was my new iPhone 4.  Several folks have asked about my opinions on it so here goes.

First off, if you have a 1st generation iPhone or a 3G, you can skip the rest of this review and just head down to your local Apple or AT&T store to try to get your hands on one.  You are now in the dark ages of iPhonery.

I was still on my first iPhone, a 3G which I've been using for two years, so this was my initial experience with migrating to new hardware.  It was a breeze.  Apple obviously has this right and the only delay was in getting the final activation from AT&T, which took about 15 minutes.  The migration is absolutely flawless--it even remembered what web page I had up on Safari. All of my settings are exactly as I had them on my 3G, except it added a new "lock" screen image and the Compass app.

I had upgraded my 3G to iOS4 last week.  The new OS is a much a part of the iPhone advance as the hardware of the 4, but it caused my 3G to run very sluggishly, almost to the point of being useless.  The 1st Gen iPhone will not run the new OS at all. My suggestion to those who plan to keep their old devices is not to upgrade to the new OS.  But the primary suggestion here is that you need to move to the 4.

If you have a 3GS and have not upgraded to iOS4, do so right away.  You'll love it.

When I unpacked my new iPhone 4 it was obvious right away it was a bit heavier.  Not clumsily so, but noticeable.  I think it must be the new longer-life battery that has added the weight.  In your hand it's also thinner on the edges as well as a bit so on the width, sort of like the Gen 1.  It feels good in your hand, very substancial, like a quality device.

The Retina display is fabulous, all that it has been puffed up to be.  But honestly, like most quality improvements, you don't really notice it after a short time.  I'm sure I would notice the difference if I had to go back to my 3G.  Looking at a book in iBooks, the text is crisp and readable.  Images look stunning but this is still a small device so nothing earth shattering here.

The new camera is great.  Users of the 1st Gen and 3G in particular will immediately notice no shutter lag time. The new zoom feature is great, and the focus select is new for me since I didn't move to the 3GS.  The image here was my first shot taken with my new phone.  I'm very happy with it,  plus it has an LED flash for low light situations.

Like any new iPhone, there are a lot of little things that have improved with the device, as with the new iOS4.  I'll let you enjoy those little surprises on your own.  But for me this is a major improvement and I cannot recommend it too highly.  A great device.

A print-resolution color display...for $199.

It's been pretty much a done deal that I was going to upgrade to the newest iPhone when it was released this summer.  I decided not to bite on the 3GS when it launched last year, thinking it wasn't really a major improvement and wanting to wait to see how the whole carrier issue/AT&T coverage problem would work through.  I use my iPhone as my one and only phone for office and personal.  I get five bars of 3G at my home/office in Seattle so I have no big complaints with the coverage I'm getting.  So committing to AT&T for another two years is no big deal, especially given my use.  If something better comes up in the next 24 months I can justify any penalties I would have to pay by the importance of the device to my daily life.

I was one of those folks watching the Tweets from the WWDC when iPhone4 was announced.  Not many surprises but the changes that we're already known were confirmed and none is more exciting in my mind than the new Retina display.

This updated display--"print resolution" as Jobs called it--reminded me of a meeting I had with Gary Starkweather at Microsoft Research in the late 90's.  Gary literally invented the laser printer when he was at Xerox in 1969 and then invented the color management technology that became ColorSync in the early 90's. As one of the early Apple guys,  he was key in developing a piece of the company that you don't hear much about anymore but was game-changing nonetheless, the Apple LaserWriter.  It was one of the first laser printers available to the mass market and was a vital component at the advent of desktop publishing. Companies like mine--and me personally--owe a great deal to pioneers like Gary (along with the folks at Aldus) who made companies like Blurb possible.

Gary had called me to come over to Research in Redmond to see his new toy--a monitor he was working on with IBM that could display at 300dpi, or print resolution.  I was running Corbis' Global Imaging Operations at the time, and we were always looking for ways to improve the quality of our digital images at the retouching stage, and this display was certainly a game changer. I remember thinking it was just like reading a book, the quality was so good. As far as I know that device never materialized as a product but the writing was definitely on the wall. Displays were going to continue to improve and, as always, continue to reduce in price.

So as I wait for this Thursday when my new iPhone4 will be shipped, I'm thinking about Gary and the contributions he made to the enjoyment I know I'll have with my new device.